Today we started the day by celebrating Ellas birthday. We sang her a song and she got a birthday crown along with a treat bag. The children's anticipation grew to share ellas bday treats (fruit roll ups..much to my surprise many boys and girls had never tried them and found them quite strange).
We did our calendar and talked about the new month of December. Then Mrs. Boese's class joined us and we read the book 'Snowmen at Night,' on the smartboard. I found this cool website called wegivebooks.com. All it requires is a username and password and you have access to thousands of books that you can pull up and read for free! Super cool, check it out :)
We talked about what our snowmen would do at night. Ella's mom helped the boys and girls do a writing activity following the sentence frame "My snowmen would ____at night." This week the boys and girls will make snowmen to go along with this.
In math we worked on problem solving skills/logical reasoning. The boys and girls were given a picture of several balls. I read them stories like, "Alec likes stripes but he does not like stars. Which ball would he choose?" Then the students made up their own problem solving stories. We talked about how they solved it. What strategy did they use?
Tomorrow is our PJ party because we filled our brownie tray (the boys and girls saw the other classes did this as a party so they wanted to try it to!) :)
Have a good afternoon!
We had a fun day today!
We started with our daily routines-calendar and daily math. Mrs. Boese's class joined us and we reviewed sight words and letter sounds. Then we played "Buried Treasure." This is fun for the kids because they get to be the teacher for awhile!
In math we worked on making repeating patterns using shapes. The children could make patterns via color, size, or shape. Then we worked on using a benchmark to estimate ("A benchmark is a a number or size we know really well and can use to compare.") We used a group of 5 beads and compared them to other groups by size (Does group A have more or less than our benchmark (without actually counting) ).
We did a mini Language Arts lesson and then got to work on two-step station work. The children worked on -an and -ap word families. This was pushing them a bit, as they had to look at a picture and decide if it belonged in the -an or -at group. They really had to sound and stretch the words out (pan...hat...man...mat). They also worked on identifying the sight words the, he, and like.
Finally it was time for a snack and choice time in the room!
Enjoy the weekend!
Today we did calendar and a review lesson of language arts during intervention time. When all my students were back together, I introduced a new math number chart we will be working with. The students told me things they notice about the chart ("Each number that gets bigger gains one dot, each number that gets smaller losses a dot." "When the number has ten, it is grouped and there is a box around it (i.e. 10+)") We then worked to create addition story problems. I did a few examples and then the boys and girls created their own ("Last night I ate 2 pieces of pizza. Then for a snack I ate 2 more. How many pieces in all did I eat?").
Next we finished up a lot of odds and ends. Children worked to complete the stations they had not yet finished. Our reindeer are ready to be hung up in the halls, with our name light bulbs wrapped around their necks! (I'll post a picture once this is finished :) )
Enjoy your evenings! Fun Friday tomorrow!!
Today our radiator was making lots of pounding noises. This led to a discussion about elves building a secret spy hole to watch how well we are listening ("And we have to sit quietly because if we disturb them they can't work"--one student). The elves will be here all month, so you might hear talk about this : )
Today during intervention time we talked more about shapes. The children looked around the room and found a variety of shapes: circles, squares, rectangles, etc. Then we worked to build language by describing how we knew it was that type of shape. Geometric and spatial concepts will continue to be woven into many activities in this unit. We did our daily math and counted to our target number, 55, by 1's, 5's, and 10's. We did great!! (Counting by 5's and 10's does not yet have to be independent). Then we reviewed the sight word he and talked about word families -ap, -an, and -at. We worked to make the connection that words in word families are also rhyming words (Ex. -ap family--tap,map,nap, etc). At this level it is okay if the children are making up words when they are rhyming.
Mrs. Mary read us a book about reindeer. We talked about how reindeer are different from deer. Then we got to work with new stations. The stations included word building work, the number 8 handwriting practice, a "(Student) can...." writing, book making, and a free-lance reindeer craft (I say free lance because there were no requirements of how their reindeer were to look; they were given a large piece of paper and had at it :):) Wait till you see how creative they were!!)
Time got away from us and it was quickly the end of our morning.
With the start of our December crafts and talking about reindeer and elves, I think I might have confused some children as one said to me at the end of the day, "Miss Voigts, Is it Christmas tomorrow?" :)
Today was a crazy day :) I through the kids off wack by starting off by doing a craft project instead of morning meeting/calendar. They handled this pretty well and did a fabulous job making light-name decorations. Then Ella's mom joined us and helped the boys and girls put glitter on their names. They turned out fabulous! All the children agreed that working with glitter today was their favorite part!
We finished up our stations today and then did a quick language arts lesson. We reviewed the sight word he, then wrote a sentence using the sentence frame "He can..." (climb, swing, go, etc). We have been talking about adding detail to our pictures. I had to remind the students today that that does not mean they have to color the entire picture corner to corner with color :) I appreciate their effort :)
Forgetting that in the winter it takes about 5 minutes extra to get ready at the end of the day, we skipped our story (and much to the children's dismay snack) and got ready to go!
NOTE: (This same info will come home in the newsletter but...)
**The book orders that came home today will be the only ones before Christmas. Remember, if you do choose to order something please use our class code (on order) so that I am able to purchase books for our whole class to enjoy :) :)
**We will NOT be doing the Christmas Program (the all day students practice in the PM so we are never able to practice)
**December 7th we will be having a little holiday party in the classroom. Parent volunteers are welcome. Let me know if you are able, no limit on how many (one per child though). Time TBA, butprobably from 9:45-10:45.
**Thank you so much for the ink cartilages that keep coming in! I will purchase something fun for our whole room to use soon :)
Today I was very impressed with what the students remembered, academic wise and behavior wise, after such a long weekend :)
We started off with community circle and the children shared something about their break. Then we did our calendar. The boys and girls are getting good at reading the days of the week, talking about what day it is today, was yesterday, and will be tomorrow. They also are learning how to say the date properly "Monday, November 26th."
We reviewed past language arts concepts then started on a new lesson. The children learned the sight word he. We worked on onsets and rymes as well as rhyming words.
We broke into new stations. One was a word work building station where students used letter cubes to build sight words. Then they recorded the sight words onto their paper. Other stations included ABC dot paint, handwriting of he and like, and a small group math station with me where we talked about shapes in our classroom. They worked really hard today and did most everything independently with few questions :)
We had time to dance to a few songs, eat a snack, and hear a story. Looking forward to a good rest of the week!
Today we named Wacky Wednesday. Wacky Wednesday started off with calendar and then a short language arts lesson with Mrs. Boese's class. The children enjoyed playing "Buried Treasure," practicing their sight words. Then my class went down to the gym and partipicated in the turkey trout. This consisted of the children running a course from one gym, through the hallways, through another gym, and then repeating. We walked it together the first time and then they were free to run/walk it by themselves. Some boys and girls absolutely loved this, others got a little scared when the 5th graders joined in.
Buried Treasure
We came back to the room and the children were "starving!" so we had a snack and got some drinks. Then we headed over to Mrs. Boese's classroom to watch Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving movie on the smartboard. We enjoyed some festive cookies before returning to the classroom. We talked about highlights from the day, then it was time to go home!
Enjoy the holiday!
Today we began with calendar, a warm up song, and our daily math. Then we reviewed sight words, letter names, and sounds. Mrs. Mary read us a thanksgiving book, and then we reviewed our math. We recalled the equals and not equals sign. I used different shapes on the smartboard, and students had to tell me if the number and shape amount = or not equaled each other. They thought it was so funny the different shapes/colors the smartboard could make (stars, arrows, big boxes, etc). They are to funny.
Then we finished up our weekly stations. The boys and girls said their favorite was the dot paint and the zap it sight word game.
We took a break and then did a number memory game on the smartboard. After this we did some writing, talking about something we like. They did a good job adding detail to their pictures.
We had a very quick snack and were headed for home!
Tomorrow isn't 'Fun Friday,' but it is the last day of the week so we named tomorrow 'Wacky Wednesday.' The students get some choose time at the end of the day and also a fun movie with Mrs. Boese's class. :) Looking forward to it!
Today was a good Monday. However, we were sad that 5 students were absent! What a small class we had.
We started with community circle. When we do this, we pass around a bear and only the person holding the bear can share. The boys and girls can choose to share about the topic that is given, or say pass. Today we shared something about our weekend.
We did our daily math warm up, and found out we have been in school 50 days! We counted to 50 by 1's, 5's, and 10's. Then we reviewed what we know about quarters, nickles, dimes, and pennies.
Mrs. Boese's class joined us and we started with a verison of the poem "Where is Thumbkin?" Ours went "Where is ____? Where is ___? Here I am...here I am." and so on. They had fun filling in the blanks with classmates names. Then we worked on our onset and rimes, blending parts of words together. We worked on discriminating the /d/ sound and the /p/ sound. I gave a word, if it was /p/ they had to pat their heads. If it was /d/ they had to drum their knees. This was kind of a tricky activity I was surprised how quickly they could process the information and do the action to go along with it :)
New stations were introduced. I worked one on one at a station working on math and the equals/not equals signs. The boys and girls were excited about a new game I taught them called Zap! The children working at that station sat in a circle and took turns drawing/reading a sight word on a stick. If they drew the one that said Zap!, they had to put them all back in the cup. The object was to have the only stick left be the zap one. I couldn't believe how much fun they had with this! They found it hilarious and were all giggles :)
Boys and Girls working through the stations for the week
We had time to do a direction coloring activity, have a snack, and read a story. Then we put up our chairs and were on our way home.
Today we did our morning calendar and daily math. Then Mrs. Boese's class joined us and we we warmed up to our language arts with a poem called "Here is the Schoolhouse." To go along with it, the children acted out the poem on their fingers. Then we played our mystery game where I told them the ending of the word, then the beginnning, and they had to flip it and tell me the word (ex. ock-/d/....dock! or -an-/t/...tan!). Then we worked to build and read simple one syllable words and the children clapped out the parts (ex. /r/ /a/ /t/....rat!). Next we reviewed how to properly make the number 7. We also talked about postion words such as beside, next to, under, and above. The students followed these activities by doing a 7 practice sheet and a turkey book of postion words.
When they were done with this they worked on a holiday card and I did a painting project with them one on one. Finally, we had time to go outside for the last 10 minutes! :) They had a blast.
Have a great weekend!
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